Leading Agile Teams
Overview
The final course of the Certificate in Agile, Leading Agile Teams complements the first two courses and rounds out your Agile expertise with important guidance on team building, change management and other crucial topics.
This eight-week course includes four weeks of instructional content, four weeks of exam prep and an additional 12 weeks of access to a dedicated test preparation classroom.
8 Continuing Education Units
80 Military Clock Hours | 10 Military Clock Hours Per Week
Who Should Enroll?
If you’re a professional working in any level of government or in healthcare, finance or other business sectors, you can benefit greatly from earning a Certificate in Agile and the Professional Certification in Agile & Scrum (PCAS) designation. The program also helps you prepare for certifications including PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® from PMI and Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) from Scrum.org. Any organization aiming to increase teamwork and improve overall results is also encouraged to consider this process improvement training for its workforce.
PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and PMI-ACP are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Course offerings and associated prices are subject to change without prior notice. Pricing for multi-course certificate programs varies depending on course selection. View the Professional Education Catalog for more information on the courses and programs.
What You’ll Study
- Scaling Scrum teams for larger complex projects
- Building Agile coaching skills
- The many facets of value management
- Effectively managing change
- Identify the behaviors that need to be embraced to become and stay Agile
- Analyze the culture and leadership needed for Agile to work
- Must-know tips for passing the PMI-ACP® certification exam
Curriculum
8 Week Course
Scaling Scrum
- Identify tools and techniques for scaling Scrum
- Discover techniques and approaches to scale your roles and ceremonies
- Examine the most common way of scaling teams, known as Scrum of Scrums
- Employ a framework for setting up a Scrum of Scrums methodology
- Define Agile scaling patterns to scale the Product Owner
- Explain how to scale the product backlog
- Discover how to apply the patterns of scaling ceremonies at the Scrum team level
- Explore common challenges for distributed teams
Scaling Scrum Advanced Topics
- Identify stakeholders to ensure the requirements gathered are accurate
- Discuss effective ways to ensure your project is balanced
- Define how to implement Scrum for multiple Scrum teams
- Determine if you can locate your entire team into one location
- Discuss tools of communication for colocated teams
- Explore how the triple constraint model is used in stakeholder communication
- Explore effective ways to implement team fixes
- Examine methods of receiving independent verification
- Describe contract negotiation within an Agile framework
- Explain how to engage in effective customer collaboration
- Discover how to obtain the greatest mutual value between the team and stakeholders
- Describe contract negotiation within an Agile framework
- Define the Shu-Ha-Ri method of mastery and continuous improvement
Scrum, Kanban, and Advanced Topics
- Explore the similarities and differences between Scrum and Kanban
- Describe the importance of self-organizing teams
- Analyze how Scrum and Kanban use prioritization to increase business value
- Discover how Scrum and Kanban use transparency to drive process improvement
- Explore the concept of blending Scrum and Kanban boards
- Distinguish the difference between being a coach vs. a trainer
- Explain the mentoring aspect of being an Agile coach
- Discuss the role of the coach as a teacher, problem solver, conflict navigator, collaboration conductor, and facilitator
- Identify the behaviors that need to be embraced to become and stay Agile
- Discuss the behaviors Agile PMOs need to embrace and avoid
- Analyze Agile contracts and how they differ from traditional ones
Agile Coaching
- Explore how the coaching role works in Agile
- Analyze the culture and leadership needed for Agile to truly work
- Discover the relationship between leadership and culture
- Discuss the difficulty of change and how Agile transitions work despite this difficulty
- Examine what part the coach plays in making Agile transitions successful
Advanced Product Owner
- Explain the importance of the Product Owner in the Scrum process
- Describe how to plan the backlog
- Discuss how good grooming supports teams for successful sprints
- Advocate using the definition of ready and the ready checklist
- Identify warning signs of projects in trouble
- Facilitate effective meetings
- Discuss the importance of organizational alignment in Agile
- Analyze standard frameworks used to align an organization
- Discuss how to gather requirements
- Review the importance of prioritization
- Explore methods of storing and acting upon requirements once they are gathered
Value Management
- Examine the two levels of focus for value management
- Discuss the use of value management inherent within Agile
- Discuss how value management is used within teams
- Explore the different skills and behaviors involved in value management
- Recognize the diverse skill sets required to deliver effective value management
- Explore the roles and organizational structures responsible for seeking value
- Examine the discovery process within value management
- Review the benefits of the continuous discovery of value
- Explain the levels and approaches inherently found in the continuous discovery of value
Problem Detection and Resolution
- Discuss the critical role of problem detection and resolution in successful Agile projects
- Examine the role of an open and safe environment for successful Agile teams
- Discuss how the mindset of personal safety and "fail fast" supports risk reduction
- Discuss the importance of identifying threats as part of initiating the iteration
- Explain why information radiators play an important role in the issue resolution process
- Discuss the powerful influence of visualization for threat management
- Explore why workflow modeling plays an important role in successful issue resolution
- Define the critical requirements to effectively communicate threat status to stakeholders
Continuous Improvement
- Discuss the power of continuous improvement in successful Agile organizations and projects
- Describe the power of applying continuous improvement to project processes
- Evaluate how Agile leverages processes to create tailored, targeted, and integrated cultural change
- Examine how Agile leverages retrospectives and spikes to improve team processes
- Discuss using the power of Agile to improve product value by reducing IKIWISI
- Describe how Agile relies on incremental development to acquire important feedback
- Discuss Agile's dependence on continued learning for the team
- Review PMI's code of ethics and professional conduct
- Determine why the four values are important to Agile leaders
- Discuss tips for passing the PMI-ACP® exam
If you’re going to pay by credit card, you can either get started with installment payments or pay in full. Just let your enrollment representative know the option that works best for you.
Corporate Tuition Assistance
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Corporate TA
Corporate tuition assistance is paid by your employer. You will need to provide appropriate forms for processing, prior to enrollment. Subject to employer benefit policies.
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Deferred Corporate TA
Pay tuition now and have your employer reimburse you. Additional documentation will be needed to process this payment. Subject to employer benefit policies.
Military Benefits
Active Duty
Villanova offers a 15% savings, per certificate course, to active-duty servicemembers, Guardsmen and Reservists (upon verification of military status).
Veterans
Villanova offers a 15% savings, per certificate course to veterans (upon verification of military status). You may also use your Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits for many of Villanova’s 100% online non-credit programs, based upon your individual eligibility.
Spouses and Dependents
Villanova offers a 15% savings, per certificate course, to active-duty servicemembers, veterans, Guardsmen, Reservists and their spouses and dependents (upon verification of military status).
This reduction is valid off the standard tuition fee rate of the listed courses offered by Villanova University with online administration by Bisk. This reduction is not stackable with other reductions, and you may not use this reduction in conjunction with other reductions.
